The Hindu Business Line : HP firms up strategy for niche domains

Singapore May 27 With India having emerged as its fastest-growing market in percentage terms across all domains, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has firmed up its strategy to lay special focus on niche domains such as telecom, banking and the e-governance space, according to Mr Som Mittal, Senior Vice-President, HP Services, Technology Solutions Group, Asia Pacific & Japan.

At the HP Asia Pacific Enterprise Media Summit 2007 held here last week, Mr Mittal told presspersons that there was "tremendous scope'' in the Indian telecom space, which was growing at a very fast rate.

Outsourcing

On its part, HP is keen to take up outsourcing work and offer applications, especially in areas such as HLR (Home Location Register), OSS (Operations Support Systems) and BSS (Business Support Systems).

He said the company had implemented banking solutions in several nationalised banks, such as State Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, United Bank of India and UCO Bank. It has also implemented an IT programme in Gas Authority of India Ltd. It is also partnering in the e-governance initiatives of several state governments.

"Earlier, our focus was on enabling global companies to go local. Now we are also focusing on empowering local companies to go global,'' Mr Mittal said, adding that HP was addressing its manpower and resources requirements in this regard.

Domestic biz

HP engages around 29,000 people in India, most of whom are largely into IT services. In India, the company has a nationwide network of retail outlets and has created 200 `HP Experience Zones' in association with its partners.

While the idea is to accelerate business growth, HP is also focused on helping its customers reduce costs and mitigate risks. "We shall continue to be focused on selling products and solutions to our customers across all domains," Mr Mittal said.